Rennyo's Manuscript of Tanisho

A Textual Criticism

By Takehiko Furuta

In his last paper published in the Shigaku Zasshi, Vol. LXXIV, the present writer advanced a hypothesis that Ruzairoku 流罪録appended at the end of Rennyo's Manuscript of Tanisho 歎異抄蓮如本 formed originally the first half of a petition to the higher public authority compiled by the author and its second half which must have existed in the original text was cut off and lost at some later date.

This paper is a further report on the condition of Rennyo's Manuscript as revealed upon its investigation. The following points have been confirmed :
1. The manuscript has been thus far regarded as Rennyo's work at his age of about sixty-five. However, his calligraphic peculiarities at this age appear only in the last part of Ruzairoku and in the endorsement of the Manuscript.
2. The other part of the Manuscript seems to be by his hand but in his forties.
3. A difference of tone in calligraphy, the colour of ink and blots sets in between the seventeenth and eighteenth line of Ruzairoku.

These facts confirm the former hypothesis and moreover suit well with another fact : of the thirty-seven endorsements of manuscripts by Rennyo, this is the only one that lacks the date. This may mean that Rennyo wished to conceal the fact that he altered the last part of Ruzairoku.

EDITED BY
SHIGAKU - KAI( The Historical Society of Japan)
Faculty of Letters
University of Tokyo